Fitbit comes to Windows Phone 8.1

Jul 29, 2014

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A few weeks ago, Fitbit confirmed that it was working on an app for Windows Phone 8.1. If you're not familiar with Fitbit, the company makes wearable devices designed for fitness tracking, health management and sleep monitoring, and its wristbands are among the most popular in the business.

Today, the app has launched, finally bringing Fitbit support to Microsoft's mobile OS. That support is pretty decent too - unlike some brands, which seem to think that a feeble web-wrapper is in some way equivalent to a fully-featured native app, Fitbit has done things properly, with full support for wireless data sync over Bluetooth, along with cloud back-up of data, and the ability to view your historical fitness info, including graphs to help you digest the detail a little more easily.

Speaking of which, you can also log your food intake throughout the day - to help you to balance the amount that you eat versus the number of calories that you burn off - as well as the amount of water that you drink. You can even keep track of how much you sleep, and in combination with all of the other features, the app promotes better health management in a way that a simple 'step counter' does not.

The app also includes social elements, so you can share your progress with friends, or get them to encourage and motivate you - or discourage and humiliate you, if preferred. As you would expect of a Windows Phone app, Fitbit also includes Live Tile support.

As WPCentral notes, the app isn't quite fully-featured yet, however. This first release of the app won't sync data in the background, for example - so you'll have to keep the app open in order for all your data to be synchronized with your account - but this feature is coming to the app soon. An update is expected later this week, although it is not yet certain if background sync will be a part of that release.

Even so, with improved Bluetooth 4.0 LE (low energy) baked into Windows Phone 8.1, including integration in the SDK, it's now much easier than before for companies like Fitbit to develop apps for the platform - and, just as importantly, to be able to support them and add to them with new features over time.

It's been a pretty good couple of months for Windows Phone, with other big names making their way to the platform too, including Pinterest and, more recently, Uber.

Download: Windows Phone Store (for Windows Phone 8.1 only) Note: the app may take some time to go live, so if it's not immediately available, don't panic!